The prestigious InClassica International Music Festival comes back to the United Arab Emirates in the fourth month of 2025, with the celebrated Alexey Shor in the role of Composer-in-Residence. Renowned for celebrating the greatest classical musicians of our age, the event shall feature 16 stunning and delightful concerts, with a roster of globally-acclaimed artists and ensembles starring at the iconic Dubai Opera, starting from the first week of April.
Moreover, this newest entry of the festival will represent a huge milestone in its incredible history since it coincides with Alexey Shor’s 55th anniversary, and will feature a large selection of his musical creations in his honour.
“Alexey Shor’s works are highly creative”, said Italian virtuoso Alessandro Taverna, who has himself performed Shor in the past. “It is something that is provoking to the soloist, because of its undoubtedly modern language, its originality and for its catchiness. I experienced a feeling of breathing a different air, fresh, which does not sound ‘academic’, which isn’t a prisoner of schemes or that does not have to pay a tribute to anybody but which is free to express itself. The composition that I have performed is demanding, challenging, but simultaneously very pleasant to audiences. It’s full of interesting aspects in its melody and rhythms.”
Widely renowned for his deeply emotive and melodically rich compositions, as indicated here by Taverna, Alexey’s rise as a composer is quickly becoming legendary. Born in 1970 in the Eastern European nation of Ukraine, christened as Alexey Vladimorovitch Kononenko, Alexey Shor’s early biography was dominated by the sphere of mathematics, with the young man rapidly establishing himself in the sector, graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a PhD before putting his talents to work with the American investment management firm, Renaissance Technologies.
His secret passions, however, harboured deep within him, lay firmly with classical music. An avid concert-goer from a young age, it was not long before he moved from merely consuming music, to actually composing it! Applying his brilliant mind to teaching himself the intricacies of composition, He initially started out with a number of brief works, primarily created for his own pleasure and amusement. A chance visit by David Aaron Carpenter, a close friend and accomplished violist in his own right would soon shift his entire life trajectory, however, since Carpenter happened to come across these early works and was immediately struck by their innovative voice and the distinctive musical language that was already on display within them.
“I’m just so proud of Alexey as a musician and as a person”, Carpenter said, speaking many years after this episode, “especially to see the progress of his competitions. It’s been amazing for us to have so many years together, I still remember performing the first piece he actually composed for me with my orchestra. It was just a great event and to have something like that and see it morph into the international superstar composer that he has become just makes me unbelievably proud and grateful that we had this musical journey together. He has now become a musical powerhouse for the viola, expanding its repertoire with over 20 compositions. His music pushes boundaries, redefining what’s possible!”
Encouraged by Carpenter’s reaction, Shor started to take composition more seriously, throwing himself into the craft as he gradually transitioned to become a full-time composer. A few years after, against all odds and in the face of the many challenges that come with entering any field, let alone one as competitive as classical music, as an adult, Alexey has now become a global sensation, spearheading a wave of contemporary music that has taken audiences all over the world by storm with its renewed focus on tonality and melody, and a desire to put forward beautiful, lyrical music for the enjoyment of all.
Now with a vast oeuvre of compositions to his name, spanning from short pieces for solo instruments, to various suites, concertos, and ensemble compositions, and even entire ballets, ice shows, as well as movie soundtracks, Alexey Shor stands at the forefront of the twenty-first century music realm. His works have resonated throughout distinguished halls around the globe, performed by a myriad of famed artists, orchestras and ensembles.
“When I perform the music of Alexey Shor, it’s like I am falling in love with music again”, stated soloist and violinist Maxim Vengerov. “It’s splendid and very melodious. The most crucially important thing is the image and energy transfer and this is how Alexey’s music is. There are lovely images and harmonies, and it’s just wonderful and people do enjoy listening to his music.”
Across his storied career, Alexey Shor has already enjoyed a strong relationship with InClassica, having appeared as its resident composer in various entries throughout its history. This 2025 event, however, shall be quite different from all that preceded it, since now it will be the festival that will be paying homage to the composer and his rich contributions to the global heritage of classical music. Consequently, an eclectic selection of favourites from Shor’s output will be exhibited across InClassica’s duration, alongside numerous offerings from other seminal masters, with the top musicians of our time coming together to honour Shor with their innovative interpretations of these beloved pieces.
One such musician, Giuseppe Gibboni, a violinist from Italy, has already played Shor’s compositions before, and declared: “It seems to me that Alexey Shor’s musical approach is extremely appealing. The compositional style of the 1900s is beautiful, with lots of research in it, however sometimes there is the need for lyrical works as well! With this change from last century to now, if we think of Shostakovich or Khachaturian or Prokofiev, it’s different from Tchaikovsky and Brahms, of course, but it’s still beautiful. Nowadays, music can occasionally risk being detached, but Shor avoids it.”
Many who have listened to his works have expressed similar sentiments, which makes his central role at InClassica 2025 a very fitting honour. After all, as the celebrated Marios Papadopoulos notes, “without contemporary music, the world of classical music has no future. We must continue to feature works which push the boundaries of both performers and listeners”, and it is precisely this that Shor has been so successfully accomplishing for such a long time.
